Felicity Kendal joins the pro-ageing revolutionaries

Felicity Kendal has had an on-off relationship with Botox and fillers - but now the British actress has called time on cosmetic treatments for good, and gone public.

Her love affair with youth-defying needles is over; "there comes a time where you have to match bits of you with the other bits. Otherwise you get a terribly random situation," the 68-year-old told Good Housekeeping last year.

Felicity Kendal, during The Good Life days, 1983Credit:
REX

Speaking out against our obsession with anti-ageing, Kendal explained; "We've come a long way in almost every walk of life in the past 30 years, and society is more equal now. But we've still got this hang-up about what women look like. I do it myself."

Charlotte Rampling, pictured in 1971 (left) and for Nars in 2014Credit:
REX/NARS

So it is with open arms that the pro-ageing movement should embrace The Good Lifestar, the new poster girl for British Botox-free women, who this week stepped out with a rather more familiar looking and relaxed attitude to wrinkles 12 months on.

The pro-ageing movement began like this: by tapping a stable of older, comfortably over 50s, celebrity faces to front their campaigns, beauty brands were cleverly embracing the emerging baby-boomer market (now the biggest spenders in beauty). What these celebrity faces have done in turn is in fact use their beauty prowess and power to embrace and front a new pro-ageing culture. They are not afraid to talk about ageing, and they are not afraid to show their wrinkles, lines and grey hair. For her debut campaign for L'Oréal back in 2014, Mirren herself eschewed any kind of Photoshopping or retouching to give you an idea.

Age before beauty? Not any more: Helen Mirren, pictured in 1995 (left) and in 2014 for L'OréalCredit:
REX/L'OREAL

And before you feel a sense of irony that the celebrities have signed up to said campaigns, these women are using their ambassadorships for far more than the brands that pay them - they are fronting social change. As GlamMonitor.com reported on the US arm of the celebrity beauty game-changers; "the baby boomer generation is ageing as the years inch further into the 21st century, the population known for its support of peace and love and rejection of cultural norms remains inventive, including its presence in the beauty industry. As the generation born roughly between 1946 and 1964, they fought in the Vietnam War and saw the end of racial segregation....they are not a generation willing to go unheard or quit reinventing themselves."

Diane Keaton, pictured left in 1996, and right in 2015Credit:
REX

When we reported the new movement earlier this year, Julie Willet, associate professor in the department of history at Texas Tech University, commented that these brave-faced celebrities are indeed driving a pro-ageing shift. "Social changes along with cosmetic companies meeting the demands of the baby boomer consumer go hand in hand. It's never just driven by a market when there are people and decisions and cultural values - they all play give and take in consumer culture."

All hail the pro-ageing celebrities, led by Diane Keaton and friendsCredit:
REX

Willet is right - L'Oréal has already taken the revolutionary message on board, revealing that it will be changing its labelling language from one of anti-ageing answers to more positive hopes of 'healing and health'.

Tilda Swinton pictured, left, in 1983, and right for Nars , in 2014Credit:
REX/NARS

The good life indeed. "There is an obsession with women's looks, and that's never going to go, but we could be a little more generous," adds Kendal, our new pro-ageing ambassador wilfully standing for our right to grow old gracefully.